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Published on April 2, 2008

The University Presidents' Council of Thailand (UPCT) is planning not to test students' knowledge of foreign languages like French and German anymore. The aim is to cut down the number of tests that university applicants have to take each year.

In response to the plan, a total of 153 foreign-language teachers attended a hearing in March to air their comments.

"If the students feel their competence in the second language won't help their chance of getting into their preferred institute, they will pay less attention to these subjects at schools," Dhurakij Pundit University vice president Dr Paitoon Sinlarat said.

Paitoon said the UPCT should encourage children to maximise their language learning potential by recognising such language competence in university admission.

Prapin Manomaivibool, president of the Chinese Language Teachers' Association of Thailand, said it would be best to let children start learning languages at the youngest age possible. Several other academics pointed out that four years of studying a language in university was not enough to produce experts for the country. That explained why Thailand still lacked highly qualified translators and interpreters for many languages, they said at the hearing. According to these academics, the shortage of translators and interpreters hurt the country's chance of learning useful knowledge from other countries and will have a negative impact on various industries.

Khunying Wongjan, vice president of Pinainitisart Association Thailandaise des Professuers de Francais, said the if the UPCT really dropped the foreign language test for the central university admission, fewer students would study the languages at secondary schools. "I also believe that some schools will stop conducting classes for foreign languages," she added. "I've heard that even Sri Ayudhya is going to drop French in the upcoming semester".

However, Khunying Suchada Kiranandana, a former Chulalongkorn University president, supported the UPCT plan not to test students' performance in the second language in the admission system.

"Students should learn languages with passion and should really recognise the benefits of these languages. They must stop thinking that they must learn the languages just to take the tests,' she said.

UPCT president Dr Monthol Sanguansermsri also sought to point out that students learning foreign languages in secondary schools could put their knowledge to use in the field when applying to university via the direct admission system.

"Aside from this, the removal of the foreign-language test in the central university admission system will reduce the burden on the National Institute for Educational Testing Service (NIETS)," Monthol said.

Currently, the NIETS is responsible for holding the Ordinary National Educational Test (Onet). Onet scores are the main criteria in the central university admission system.

Up until now the country has recognised the importance of many foreign languages. The NIETS has to prepare tests for French, Chinese, German, Japanese and Spanish.

An online poll recently suggested that a large number of respondents were against the UPCT plan not to test students' performance in a foreign language.

"We will take the findings into account when we convene our next meeting," Monthol said.

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation